New wave of radical Israeli settlers digging in for the long haul in the West Bank

Israel's plans to step up settlements on the West Bank have drawn the harshest
criticism yet from Barack Obama's administration. But, as Nick Meo
finds out, those living in the settlements are not going anywhere.

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A view of caravan homes that house settlers in the Itamar Settlement in the West Bank, IsraelPhoto: DEBBIE HILL

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Settlers study in a new yeshiva built in memorial for the Fogel Family who were killed by terrorists in the Itamar Settlement, West BankPhoto: DEBBIE HILL

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Settler children play outside a kindergarten in the Itamar Settlement in the West BankPhoto: DEBBIE HILL

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Israeli settlers study in a new yeshiva built in memorial for the Fogel Family who were killed by terrorists in the Itamar Settlement, West BankPhoto: DEBBIE HILL

High on a windy limestone plateau in the ancient biblical land of Judea and Samaria is the settlement of Itamar, a Jewish bastion deep in what today is hostile Arab territory.

The farms and homes of its 230 families are protected by an electrified fence topped with barbed wire and monitored by the night vision cameras and sensors of the Israeli army. Jerusalem is within easy commuting distance by a fast road, although the drive to work can be hazardous and the past month has been more violent than usual.

Last week Palestinian youths were hurling rocks at Israeli cars, as they have done daily since last month's brief Gaza war, and they have taken it out on motorists since the Israeli government announced at the end of November that 3,000 homes are to be built in a planned settlement on a strategic chunk of the West Bank outside Jerusalem, a block of land called "E1".

That decision triggered an international outcry and even provoked the US government - which had been careful to show public support for Israel throughout the Gaza fighting - to criticism. “These activities set back the cause of a negotiated peace,” said Hillary Clinton, secretary of state.

"We're in the middle of Arab territory here, a place that a lot of Israelis are scared to come to," said Meir Rapaport, a 19-year religious student with a strong Bronx accent who arrived at Itamar from New York a year ago.

"Sometimes you get woken up at night and have to take shelter when there's a security alert, and you hear shots once in a while. My parents think I'm crazy to come here.

"When I first moved to Israel I headed for Tel Aviv and the party scene, but this is the place for me. This is our land. It says so in the Bible. You have to be ready to bleed for it and fight for it."

To the valley-dwelling Palestinians who have seen settlements mushroom on the hilltops above their villages, the settlers are reviled occupiers, and perhaps the vanguard of a much bigger invasion of Israelis to come.

To secular Israelis, many of the settlers are wide-eyed fanatics and a dangerous obstacle to peace. If an independent Palestinian state was ever established on the West Bank the 250,000-plus Jewish settlers scattered around it would have to be moved – as well as the more than 200,000 Israelis who now live in and around Arab east Jerusalem.

But they are dug in, well armed, and absolutely determined to stay. There are even fears of an Israeli civil war if the army was sent in to get settlers out, as it was in Gaza in 2005.

Itamar is one of the biggest and oldest settlements on the West Bank, eight miles across, with a short but bloody history. Twenty-two of its settlers have been killed in terrorist attacks since it was founded, and there are photographs of eight slain pupils and a teacher on the wall of the community's school.

Last year, in an attack that horrified Israelis and many Palestinians, Ehud and Ruth Fogel and their three children were murdered in their home in the settlement by two Palestinian brothers who boasted about the killing when they were arrested. The youngest victim was three months old.

"The terrorists came from over there," said Moshe Goldsmith, 49. He was standing on a hillside next to the settlement's olive press, pointing down at the Arab village, a couple of miles away, from which the killers came.

Mr Goldsmith said he almost never speaks to his Palestinian neighbours. No Arabs work on the settlement, and settlers rarely stop along the main road, where Palestinians scowl at them. Signs put up by the Israeli authorities warn its citizens not to drive down entry roads into Arab villages.

Settlers black out Arabic script on road signs with spray paint.

Arabs in the area claim the settlers have often attacked and harassed them, smashing cars and even setting fire to mosques. Those claims are denied by the Itamar settlers, who say they condemn attacks by young settlers on Arabs.

Mr Goldsmith, a rabbi from Brooklyn, emigrated to Israel in 1985 and headed for the settlement, set up a year earlier, because he was full of idealism and loved the old pioneering Israeli spirit. He was drawn by the area's rich Jewish history. Nearby is Shiloh where, according to the Bible, the Ark of the Covenant was kept. The Jewish patriarch Abraham, the founder of Judaism, entered the Promised Land through a valley running past Itamar.

"We are returning to the land that was given to the Jews as an everlasting inheritance," Mr Goldsmith said. A heavy-set man who is intensely proud of the settlers' mission, he is acutely aware that not everyone in Israel admires his fervour. "Today the word settler has become a dirty word, and many people think we have got horns," he joked.

The Israeli-Arab conflict, a matter of agonised complexity to most of the world, is very simple to him. "Unfortunately the Muslim world sanctifies violence and killing," he said. "They are violent people by nature and it is we who have suffered."

Mr Goldsmith insists that Itamar was empty land before the settlers moved in – local Arabs say it was full of their flocks and olive trees - and he is proud of the settlement's achievements. There is a little petting zoo for tourists who come for the breathtaking views north to the Galilee and west over the Jordan Valley, and the settlers sell yoghurt as well as olive oil, although most make a living by commuting to jobs in Israel.

He is quite confident that there is no chance of his settlement ever being forced to pack up to make way for a Palestinian state. "The Israeli government and political establishment don't want a two-state solution, they won't say that because they are just worried about what Obama and the Europeans say. I believe 70 per cent of Israelis are against a Palestinian state and this coming election in January will show Israel is moving to the right, not the left."

The settlements have barely been mentioned so far in the election campaign, which has been dominated by security threats to Israel and the high cost of living for ordinary families.

"Nothing will change," Mr Goldsmith said. "The Arabs will go on attacking us. The war is not going to end. The world looks at us through secular eyes. They must accept our claim for religious reasons. We're not a country like any other in the world."

Settlements like his are regarded as illegal under international law, built on land conquered in the 1967 war. But not under Israeli law, and there is no attempt to hide the support from Israel's government, whose soldiers guard the settlers. Its taxpayers fund settlement infrastructure. The roads and schools are good and a giant synagogue is under construction in the middle of the settlement.

"Of course without the support of the Israeli government, we could not stay here," Mr Goldsmith admits. He dreams of a city of 100,000 Jews on the site of the settlement in 20 years' time.

Most of the community's residents are religious orthodox Jews, but not all, and even the devout admit that part of the attraction for coming was property prices. A three-bedroom house in Itamar costs around £75,000, compared to about £375,000 in Jerusalem.

Settlers nearer Jerusalem tend to have less sense of mission, and more interest in affordable location. Ofra, a place mentioned in the Bible, is home to religious Jews but its Barratt-home style housing estates are also popular with young families who cannot afford Jerusalem, a few minutes drive away, or Tel Aviv, which can be reached on the motorway.

Their children have to go to school in buses with bullet-proof windows, and some residents wear pistols in holsters, but by moving out to a settlement they can enjoy a big garden, fresh air and a strong sense of community. They are sometimes called lifestyle settlers – but most of them sympathise with the religious hard-liners, and tend to become more hardline the longer they live in the settlements.

Yardin Houminer, 22, is moving to the settlement of Shvut Rachel next month when she marries. "It's much cheaper living there, and the community is friendly," she said. "I also believe God wants us to live on this land."

The settlements would be vulnerable if another intifada breaks out, but for now they are thriving: violence is manageable, construction is booming, the Israeli economy benefits, and entrepreneurs enjoy access to cheap land and labour.

It's obvious to everyone that their growth is changing Israel and its troubled relationship with the Palestinians. As the settlers grow in number and become more confident, a so-called "one-state solution" looks more likely than the two states side by side - Israel and a fully independent Palestine - that the international community favours. It is especially likely if more Israelis accept that the peace process has failed.

In that case Israel would have to cope with a massive and hostile permanent Palestinian population.

Some Israelis fear that a Middle East version of the old South African apartheid state may then be the result. Dr Menachem Klein, a former adviser to the then Labour prime minister, Ehud Barack, during negotiations with the Palestinians in 2000, is a critic of the current Israeli policy towards the West Bank.

He uses the word "Bantustans" - the impoverished "homelands" to which black South Africans were restricted - to describe the future for the parcels of land where he thinks the Arab population of the West Bank will have to live.

"The next Israeli government will probably be the same as this government, and there will probably be some lip service to talks," he said. "But there will be more building, and Palestinians will have only 40 per cent of the land, divided into blocks, perhaps connected by tunnels and bridges. The rest will be under Israeli control. The American government does not seem to be able to see the strategy."

Other analysts believe international pressure, and revulsion at home, will stop Israel and its occupied territories developing like that. But nobody thinks the West Bank - Judea and Samaria to religious Jews - will lose its allure for those in search of spiritual homes and cheap property.